Two Weeks
by SukiNora
Summary: The guys work at Aussie Times, and Australian themed restaurant. Heero, Wufei, and Trowa are cooks, and Duo is the top server who is selected to train the newest Aussie-server Quatre. Heero secretly likes Duo, who has just put in his two weeks.
1. Chapter 1

**Two Weeks**

**By: SukiNora**

**Disclaimer: Don't own em. **

**Summary: The guys work at Aussie Times, and Australian themed restaurant. Heero, Wufei, and Trowa are cooks, and Duo is the top server who is selected to train the newest Aussie-server Quatre. Heero secretly likes Duo, who has just put in his two weeks.**

**A.N. Guess what restaurant I work at : ) An australian themed steak house! Many of the things occurring in this fic are based on work experiences. Hope you enjoy : ) There will be 14 chapters, one day at work for each of Duo's last two weeks. **

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"Well, Quatre," Sally said, patting him twice on the back as she gazed around the empty dining room. "I'm sorry to tell you that you have kind of a long day ahead of you. We need to get you on the floor by wednesday so we're going to have you learn both opening and closing today. It should be slow since it's monday so I'm sure you'll be fine. We've got our best server training you today, and he agreed to do an open to close, so you'll be in good hands."

Quatre nodded slowly, feeling a little anxious. He'd served before, but being in a new town, in a totally new restaurant kind of put him on edge. Especially since he had to wear this stupid flight shirt. He'd been given a dijon mustard colored one.

"Oh, there he is now," Sally said a smile appearing on her face as a tall, well built man sauntered into the bar area with a giant blue icee. His faded blue jeans hung low on his hips, slightly exposing his lime green boxers, his black t-shirt hanging loosely on his chest. He carried a bright red flight shirt, and black slacks in the crook of his arm.

"Hello, Sally, you're looking lovely today, as usual," he said, taking a long slug of his drink and raised his eye brows, before chucking it into the garbage can behind the bar.

"Yes, yes, Casanova," she chuckled. "This is Quatre, he's the new trainee. Quatre this is Duo."

"Oh," Duo said happily, a big grin appearing on his face. "Nice to meet you sir," he held out his hand for Quatre to shake.

Quatre automatically felt better once he met his trainer. He just had this kind of laid back attitude that automatically put him at ease. "Nice to meet you as well."

"Well boys," Sally said, patting each of them on the back as she walked past them. "Get to work!"

The two watched Sally disappear into the lobby and Duo let out a long sigh, and flashed Quatre a big a smile. "Lets get started, shall we?"

Quatre nodded. "Absolutely."

"Great," Duo said. "Follow me."

Duo led the new guy into the kitchen happily. He'd trained some pretty stupid people in the past, but he had a good feeling about this new guy. He didn't look like the type to get scared easily.

"Okay," he began as they made their way into the kitchen. "First off, we need to go get the left overs from last night. They're in the walk- in."

He gestured with his head towards the back end of the kitchen. "So, Quatre right?" He asked. Quatre nodded, following him into the walk- in and watched as Duo pulled out a big plastic bin that contained multiple metal containers that were covered with plastic lids.

"Yeah," he replied, holding the door open as Duo exited with the leftover toppings.

"Cool name," Duo said. "You ever served before?"

"Yes," Quatre replied, helping Duo unload the metal containers into crevices next to the expo window, where the food was trayed up. "But I'm a little nervous."

"Oh don't worry," Duo smiled brightly at the newbie. How cute, he was scared. "You'll be safe with me."

The two made small talk as Duo showed Quatre all the things required to open. "Now, usually you wont have to do this by yourself, since we have two openers. But since you're here I told Zechs not to worry about coming in until we open."

Quatre sighed a breath of relief, he wasn't sure he'd be able to remember everything that needed to be done by himself.

"Hey, Duo, you got custody over the newbie?" Quatre turned quickly at the sound of the noise, blushing slightly at his new nickname. Duo smiled and leaned down a bit to stare past the metal partition which separated the cooks from the servers.

"I sure did, Trowa. This is Quatre," he said, pointing his thumb towards the blushing blonde. "Make sure the other guys are nice to him."

The cook smiled back at the two servers, his hair covered with a light green bandana. "I'll do what I can, but you know I can't vouch for the them. You know how they are."

Duo chuckled, winking at Trowa. "Come on, you know y'all are just softies at heart."

"You really think that don't you," came a new voice. "Too bad you don't realize that's the exact opposite reason why we're stuck in the back and not on the floor. We aren't equipped to interact with the actual customers."

Duo rolled his eyes, a smirk finding its way to his face. "Whatever, Wu-man, just be nice to him."

"I've told you multiple times, you braided ignoramus, my name is Wufei! You'll remember that if you want your food to ever leave this kitchen!" He emphasized his annoyance by clicking his tongs at the braided server who had momentarily paused in his introductions to button his flight shirt.

"Hn," another cook snorted, his back turned to the others as he prepped the grill.

Wufei sighed, glaring at Duo who suddenly looked oddly smug. "You're lucky you've got Yuy on your side," he growled. "God knows why," he trailed off.

Duo laughed and pointed to the cook with his back turned to them. "That's Heero, he's the grill cook. You get in good with him, and you're good with all the cooks. Since they're all terrified of him," he added quietly.

"Don't fill his head with false hopes," Trowa laughed out. "You know you're the only server Heero can even remotely stand."

He shrugged. "What can I say, I am pretty awesome."

The other two cooks rolled their eyes as Duo laughed and led Quatre out of the kitchen into the dining area.

"Ohhh," Duo said happily, dragging Quatre over to a table that had been sat with two older ladies. "Looks like we're open."

Quatre felt a bit nervous as Duo led him to their first table. A little further along the wall of booths another server with long blonde hair pulled into a low pony tail was taking a young couples order. Quatre raised an eyebrow as Duo introduced them both, finding it strange that both Duo and another male server had such long hair. Sally must be a very liberal manager.

"Hello, ladies," Duo said happily, passing a coaster out to each of the women at the table. "My name's Duo, and this here is my trainee Quatre. We'll both be serving you today. Can we get you started with something to drink? Coke products, iced tea, or are you thinking about heading to margarita- ville today?" He finished, raising his eye brows suggestively at the elderly women who giggled in response.

"No, no, dear," the first lady responded. "I think I'll just take black coffee."

The second lady nodded. "I'd like coffee as well, but I'd like cream."

Duo nodded. "Fair enough, I'll have these drinks right out for you."

As Duo led Quatre back to the kitchen, he placed his hand on the newbies back, leading him over to the coffee machine. "Now, I know you've said you've served before. But let me give you a few pointers. First off, old people fucking love coffee. Even if they initially start out wanting water, if you let the word coffee drop you've got another two bucks added to their tab. And when you suggest an aussie- tizer, always go for the shrimp. For whatever strange, wacked out reason, old people inhale shrimp."

Quatre nodded, taking in everything Duo said. "Seriously?" He asked. "Shrimp?"

Duo nodded enthusiastically, throwing some creamers into a small bowl. "Oh for sure! I'm telling you, old people love shrimp! But who doesn't honestly, that shit is delicious. Ain't that right Heero!?" He called as the two carried the drinks past the expo window. Quatre finally got to see the mysterious cook as he nodded his head. He had a black hat on backwards, pulling his messy hair off his forehead. His blue eyes looked amused as he watched Duo exit the kitchen with his new trainee.

It was true that Duo was the only server Heero could remotely stand. All the rest of them drove him insane, and he had no problem showing it, or taking his aggression out on their food. Oh how he loved being a cook, he could make the entire restaurant crash and burn if he wanted.

Heero had started off as a prep cook at the same time that Duo was a busser. It was his first job and he quickly found himself somewhat intimidated by the other employees, all of whom seemed to not even realize someone new worked there. Except Duo that is. On his first day when he couldn't find the onions in the walk- in, Duo paused in his collecting of lemons for the bar, and showed him around. Ever since, Heero had secretly been infatuated with the braided man. As their friendship evolved, so did his feelings, but he found himself much to nervous to make a move.

"You make me sick, Yuy," Wufei mumbled under his breath as he pulled three plates and laid them out in the expo window. "The second you let a server think we like him, and it's all over. Suddenly they want us to do all these favors for them, make sure their food comes out perfect, help them steal shit for their tables. I blame you for this."

Heero snorted, and flipped a piece of salmon on the char grill. "Duo's not that kind of server. He's not Relena, and you know it."

"We'll see," Wufei grumbled, placing a steamed vegetable bag on the appropriate plate as Duo came into the kitchen laughing hysterically and exclaimed "What did I tell you?! I've got a grilled shrimp coming back!"

The two made their way to the computer and Duo showed Quatre how to punch in his food. The other blonde server was on the computer next to them, punching in his own order but ignored the two as he did so. "And thank god old people love shrimp. That appetizer just saved the bill for that table." Duo nudged the other server. "Splitting a six ounce. Gotta love mondays."

The other nodded and rolled his eyes. "At least you don't have a 14 year old couple. I didn't even know high school let out this early."

"I guess so," Duo laughed out. "By the way Zechs, this is Quatre, he's the new server."

"Ah," Zechs said, holding out his hand. "Nice to meet you. Glad to see the cooks haven't scared you off yet." He ducked his head to avoid the lemon that was thrown at him.

"Shut your insolent mouth, Merquise," Wufei exclaimed. "Your grilled onions are at my mercy."

Heero emphasized the threat as he sprayed more oil than necessary on the onions, producing a large cloud of smoke and a particularly violent hissing sound.

"Fucking cooks," Zechs mumbled under his breath as he stalked out of the kitchen with an iced tea.

Duo laughed. "They really aren't that bad," he assured Quatre, who was beginning to look a little pale in the face. "You just got to know how to get into their hearts." He turned his backs to the cooks, and quietly whispered to Quatre. "Go ask if any of them want something to drink."

Quatre looked back at him incredulously. It couldn't be that easy.... could it? As though he could read his mind Duo nodded, tilting his head towards the expo window.

Taking a deep breath, Quatre turned and leaned down so he could see the cooks a bit. "Um," he stammered. "Do any of you need something to drink?"

All three cooks stared at him in silence, blank looks gracing their faces. Trowa spoke first. "What did you say your name was?"

"Quatre."

"We'll be sure to take care of your tickets. I'd like a water, please."

Heero rolled his eyes and smirked as Quatre poured the three waters. He stifled the urge to laugh as Duo ripped them from his hands when he realized the new guy hadn't put nearly enough ice in them. How easy the other two fell at the hands of helpful servers. None of the cooks particularly liked going on the other side of the partition, especially not to get a drink. They weren't experienced in getting them fast and efficient, and to leave the back line meant getting in about seven different servers way and causing a long line at the soda machine. Heero had to give Duo credit, he did know how to get on a cooks good side.

"The new guy might not be all bad," Wufei conceded. "At least he's not stupid enough to get us water without a ton of ice."

Trowa nodded, taking a long drag of his water, and stared at the blonde who was frantically trying to keep up with Duo, who was trying to show him how to ring in their orders.

The night progressed slowly, but Quatre was a quick learner, and after only about three tables Duo felt confident enough in Quatre's abilities to let him take his own table while he shadowed him.

As more and more people came to the restaurant, Quatre found himself being introduced to more and more of the serving staff. After the initial meet and greet Duo would take Quatre aside and let him in on the real insights of their personalities.

"Make sure you don't actually tell Dorothy anything you don't want every employee of the restaurant to know. Don't get me wrong she's a nice girl, but she had no concept of the term secret. And that one, Relena, if you ever see her run food to your table, on the rare occasion that she might run food that is," he added under his breath. "Be sure to check back and see what they need because she won't bring it and will oh so conveniently 'forget' to tell you what they asked for."

Quatre nodded, learning their faces and matching them with the descriptions Duo had given him.

"If you remember that, you'll do just fine here," Duo said happily as Quatre filled up two glasses of coke for their table.

"And if you don't get around," Zechs mumbled from behind them.

Quatre felt his eyes bug out of his head. "Excuse me?" He asked.

"Sad fact of the restaurant trade, everyone sleeps with everyone. So be careful who you sleep with. The only reason Duo's lasted so long is because he can keep it in his pants."

Quatre turned wide eyed to Duo who nodded. "It's true. Drunken flings happen to the employees here way more frequently than I'd like to admit. I mean damn, I think Wufei's slept with the entire female waitstaff by now."

Wufei leaned down in the window, raising his tongs. "Twice," he said, suggestively licking between the metal prongs and gestured to Relena who huffed and stalked out of the kitchen. The waitstaff erupted into laughter.

"Come on, Quatre," Duo laughed out, grabbing his trainees arm and one of the cokes. "Lets see if table 6's bill is ready."

The two made small talk as they made their way out of the kitchen, briefly checking on their other two tables before picking up a check at the last one.

"I will be right back with this," Duo said lightly, picking up the book and clutching it under his arm.

"Oh no, you're all set there," the woman said, smiling brightly at her server. He reminded her of her son that just went off to college, so friendly and full of life.

"Thank you very much!" Duo smiled brightly. "You folks have a wonderful night, okay?"

As the two walked away from the table Duo passed on some more serving advice. "I always make sure to tell them I'll be right back with their change, because it's kind of rude other wise. Oh perfect timing," he said, pointing to Relena who was walking over to her table.

As the two walked past her they could hear to ask "Do you need change back?" The table had a slightly awkward look as they said yes.

"See, that's just stupid," Duo explained. "Always assume they need change. It's not like you're this amazing server who deserves all their change. Plus it just makes people feel awkward when you," Duo was cut off as he leaned back to avoid a piece of broccoli that was flung from the expo window.

"Come on, guys! Stop I just need some extra alfredo sauce!" Dorothy whined, multiple vegetables hanging off her flight shirt.

Trowa glared at her from the sauté station with his arms crossed. "If they said they needed extra alfredo then you should have rung it in that way!"

Quatre went pale in the face as Duo chuckled at the argument that ensued. "Duo," he mumbled.

"Yeah, man?"

"I think I forgot to ring in that side of add on crab legs for table 5."

Duo shrugged. "Don't worry about it, it's your first day and their food hasn't been out that long," he said as he walked to the window, leaning down. "Hey, Heero!"

The grill cook turned around, first looking venomous to be distracted from his work, but when he saw Duo's smiling face in the window, he couldn't help the smirk that tugged on his lips.

"Can I please get an asap crab leg?" He asked, batting his eyes at the cook, who as if on autopilot, went to the chef cooler and pulled out the crab and put it in the microwave. "Three minutes," he called back as went back to the grill and Duo smiled triumphantly in the window.

Dorothy scowled. "Oh what the fuck!?" She exclaimed. "He gets his asap order out asap and I have to argue about tickets?! He didn't even send one back."

"Duo," Heero called from the grill. "Do you plan to send me back a ticket at some point tonight with a don't make on it?"

Duo nodded. "I sure do," he smiled, nudging Quatre in the ribs.

Heero turned and faced Dorothy, leaning down to glare at her. "You never send back tickets."

"Jesus, just make the fucking alfredo will you?!" She screeched. Trowa glared at her and very slowly proceeded to gather the ingredients.

"Asap crab," Heero called, throwing the plate past Wufei and onto the server end.

Duo quickly ran up and grabbed it, passing the plate to Quatre who quickly ran it to the table. "Thanks, Hee-chan!"

Wufei grumbled from the window. "Maxwell, you must be the biggest kiss ass on the entire face of the planet."

Duo leaned down and glared at the man plating food. "Um, you can suck my cock, Wufei."

"I'm sure Yuy's too busy doing that for me to even try," he shot back and the whole kitchen went silent in terror of what was sure to erupt. The whole restaurant was plenty aware of Heero's feelings for Duo, but the braided server was just a tad oblivious, even though they'd kissed on multiple drunken occasions at the after work party or after a night at the bar across the street. Despite these occurrences, everyone knew that it was one restaurant hook up that you did not talk about.

"Oh, yeah?!" Duo shot back, pushing back a fully plated table of food, almost knocking off the replacement plates in the process. "You want to talk about your drunken endeavors, Wu-Man? Because I happen to know of a certain higher up that you may have..."

"Fine, Maxwell!" He screeched, quickly cutting him off, his eyes wide and nervous. "You have made your point, I apologize."

Duo glared at him and left the food in the window, not ready to help the cook out just yet. "Damn, right you are," he mumbled as he left the kitchen in pursuit of Quatre.

The second the braided man was out of the kitchen, Heero accidently spilled some hot steak juice onto Wufei's arm. He yelped and glared at the cook, but it was nothing compared to the fire that Heero had behind his eyes.

"What the fuck, man," he growled, throwing the steak down on one of the make up plates.

"Oh, come on, Yuy," Wufei grumbled. "You know shit would be a fuck- ton easier if you'd just tell him."

"He doesn't want to talk about it," he replied sharply. "So, we aren't going to talk about it."

"No you'll just make out every time you're drunk," Trowa chimed in. "That's a wonderful relationship."

The rest of the night was spent with way too much food in the window, as Duo was still mad enough at Wufei to not run as much food as he usually did. By the end of the night Quatre was exhausted, but felt like he was getting the hang of working at Aussie Times.

Closing went relatively smoothly, no late night assholes, and Quatre was thankful that he had Duo training him as it came time to actually interact with the cooks as they lugged all the containers to the dish tank to be washed.

As Duo was throwing out left over mashed potatoes, Heero came up next to him and he unloaded his grill equipment into the dish tank.

"Are you head wait?" He asked, surprised to see Duo there so late.

"Nah," Duo replied, smiling lightly and motioned to Quatre. "I pulled an open to close to train him."

"Oh," Heero responded, trying to mask his disappointment. He loved nights when Duo would head wait and stay after their shifts to help Sally with the books. An unfortunate fact about being a cook was that you were usually the first to arrive, and the last to leave. But on days when Duo was head wait, they'd talk at the bar as Heero did inventory and then usually car pooled to where ever people had decided to hang out that night.

"You're going to Friday's right?" Duo asked as he hurled the metal tin onto the metal ledge of the dish tank.

Heero nodded. "Yeah, I just have to do inventory and then I'll be there."

Duo smiled. "Awesome, I'm bringing Quatre tonight too. We'll save you a seat."

After working a shift at Aussie Times, the tradition was to go get at least a little tipsy no matter what plans you had for the next day. After dealing with special instruction orders, and the tables that gave them, it usually wasn't hard to convince someone to drown their sorrows in a bottle of liquor.

By the time the rest of the cooks showed up, Duo was already a little tipsy, and Quatre was in deep conversation with one of the slutty hostesses. He had no desire to be talking to her, but was so mortified by what she was saying and the fact that she wanted to hang out with the servers and cooks that he could not turn away.

Heero smirked and walked up behind Duo, who was talking to one of the bar tenders, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Miss me?" He asked, smiling larger when he saw a fresh jack and coke in his hand.

"You know I did," he replied, laughing and leaning into Heero's side.

Despite the fact that he knew that a relationship based completely off alcohol wasn't a healthy one, Heero couldn't help the smile he got on his face whenever he saw Duo with a drink. Tipsy Duo meant boyfriend Duo, and really, that's all he cared about.

After getting his own beer and slinging his arm lazily over Duo's shoulder as he led them back to the long table that pretty much the entire staff of Aussie Times occupied, Duo stopped him and pulled him aside. "Lets go somewhere alone," he said, pulling Heero towards a more secluded table in the corner of the bar.

Heero complied, but was a little shocked to be taking this route so quickly. He wasn't even tipsy and Duo seemed to only be on his second drink.

The two laughed as they watched the cooks interrogate Quatre, pulling him up to the bar to get him another drink. "Well, he's going to have a wicked hang over," Duo laughed out. Heero nodded in agreement, pulling the server closer to his side.

Duo let out a long sigh. "I'm sure going to miss it," he mumbled, taking a sip of his drink.

"Miss what?" Heero asked, chuckling as Quatre had been coerced into doing jello shots.

"Everyone. It's hard to believe this is all ending."

Heero raised an eye brow. "What are you talking about?"

Duo leaned back from Heero's grasp and turned to look the cook in the eye. "Didn't I tell you? I got a real job. I put my two weeks in tonight."

Heero felt the color drain from his face. "A real job?" He asked. "As in, you won't be working at the restaurant anymore?"

Duo shook his head. "Not after two weeks."

Chapter 1 End

A.N. Okay, sorry I know that was a lot of introductions. And if anyone is confused about the server lingo then let me know and I will explain it in the next chapter. Hope you all enjoyed : )


	2. Chapter 2

**Two Weeks**

**By: SukiNora**

**Disclaimer: Don't own em. **

**Summary: The guys work at Aussie Times, and Australian themed restaurant. Heero, Wufei, and Trowa are cooks, and Duo is the top server who is selected to train the newest Aussie-server Quatre. Heero secretly likes Duo, who has just put in his two weeks.**

**A.N. The second chapter : ) I'm back in school so I'll try to update as frequently as I can, but I also want to get out the last chapter of the stand still and I've got a big course load. This is kind of a song fic chapter? It also kind of ran away with itself, so I hope the length makes up for the long lag between updates **

**Chapter Two**

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"That is some fucked up bull shit," Trowa said, throwing a table spoon of butter in his saute pan. "So two weeks, huh?"

Heero nodded angrily, flipping a steak with much more force than necessary, almost tearing the fragile filet in two. "A real job," he scoffed out. "I didn't know graphic designers were too good to hold a second job."

Trowa laughed at the mix of emotions coming off the grill cook. "You aren't actually mad at Duo," he said. "You're just mad that you wont be able to get him drunk every night."

"He gets himself drunk," Heero countered, pointing at the saute cook with his spatula. "And he throws himself at me. It's not like I'm telling him to."

"I suppose that's fair. Is he working today?"

Heero nodded. "I think he said that he was closing. He was still sleeping when Wufei and I left." Heero let out a long sigh as he remembered the peaceful look on Duo's face that "morning." A sad fact about the life of a cook was that they were usually the first to arrive and the last to leave.

"He slept at your house again? Why does he even bother to keep his apartment?" Trowa questioned as Wufei pushed past him carrying a large stack of plates.

"I will not live with that idiot," Wufei stated, setting the plates on the high shelf above the expo window. "It's bad enough that he's around all the time, I refuse to share a lease with him."

Heero rolled his eyes. "He won't even talk about the fact that he sleeps in the same bed with me, if I asked him to move in I'm pretty sure he'd have a full blown panic attack."

Wufei grumbled. "You sure know how to pick em," he said. "A server and a commitment-phobe. Could you get any worse?"

Heero paused for a moment and thought about it. "Probably not."

"Uh, could you guys do some actual work instead of standing around talking? I need table two's food," came a high pitched complaint.

The three hot end cooks leaned down and saw one of the other female servers, Hilde, standing next to a nervous looking Quatre as she drummed her fingers impatiently against the window.

"You're training Quatre?" Trowa asked incredulously. "Why would they want someone like you to be training him? Shouldn't they let someone who does their job do that?"

"Haha," she spat out. "You are hilarious. Can I please get my fucking food?"

Heero kept his back turned to the window as Hilde's voice cut into him. How he hated Hilde. Ever since she'd started working at Aussie Times she'd been in constant battle with him for Duo's affections, and while she was currently losing, Heero had not been immune to hearing about a one night stand when she first started working there. Despite Duo telling her it'd been a mistake, and her pretending to agree, she was all over him since. She flirted, ran his food, followed him around at parties. Heero scoffed to himself and purposefully burned one side of her table's steak. She made him sick.

Trowa scowled as passed some of Hilde's food to Wufei, who began plating it begrudgingly. He didn't particularly have a problem with Hilde, but hated being bossed around by the servers.

"Quatre," Trowa called, curling his finger at the new server as he stood awkwardly against the soda tank, looking for something to do since Hilde was caught up in her own thing. "Come to me, Quatre," he cajoled with a smile.

Quatre looked from his trainer, who shook her head, to the saute cook who smiled lightly as he motioned for the server to approach him. Hesitantly, he slowly walked towards the cook as his trainer let out a sigh of annoyance.

"Um, yes?" He asked quietly.

Trowa smirked at him. "Have fun last night?"

Quatre blushed. He had hoped that no one would mention just how inebriated some of the employees at Aussie Times had gotten him last night. "Yes," he said carefully, raising an eyebrow at the question.

"Tonight we're going to Heero and Wufei's house for a party after work," Trowa smiled. "Would you like to come?"

Quatre's eyes grew a fraction larger as he smiled. He hadn't been sure if the cooks and other servers were being nice to him simply because of Duo yesterday, but being alone and asked to hang out with them outside of work? Quatre was so happy that he instantly nodded, and completely forgot his views about not drinking on week nights.

"Yeah, absolutely," he said ecstatically.

Trowa smiled, as the other two hot end cooks looked over at the events that had transpired with a careful eye. "Great. We can carpool there if you'd like."

"Sounds great!"

For the first time since Quatre had moved to this new city, he truly felt like he was beginning to fit in.

"Come on, Quatre," Hilde mumbled, rolling her eyes at the new servers obvious elation. "Our food's ready."

"My god, you're worse than Yuy," Wufei mumbled to Trowa, who had a hard time keeping the satisfied grin off of his face.

As the two servers began to tray up the food for their table, Quatre found his mind drifting to other places as his trainer tried to clarify some of the finer points in traying food, such as mashers always getting parsley and putting a little extra seasoning on the green beans once they'd been plated.

"Don't forget the bling bling!" Duo exclaimed, walking past the two as they trayed their food. He was in the process of putting on a dark red server shirt as he walked to the posse and punched himself in.

"Bling bling?" Quatre asked as Hilde laughed and rolled her eyes.

"That's what we call parsley. Bling. Don't forget, unless it's kid food, it gets some bling bling."

"Yup," Duo smiled, putting his apron on. "Gotta make them mashers look all pretty."

After hearing Duo's voice Heero quickly turned from the grill and called to the server, currently on his way out of the kitchen. "One second Heero!" He called back, wanting to talk to his friend but not willing to start the day off with angry customers.

It was bad enough he had to end the previous night badly. Heero didn't adjust to his news with as much grace as Duo thought he would. He had thought Heero would be happy for him, but instead he just seemed to pout all night as he nursed his beer and ignored Duo. Things had gotten a bit better when they had gone back to his house though...

Duo blushed slightly and smiled as the memories returned to him. Oh the things alcohol did to him. He was just thankful Heero wasn't offended, and that he had a good excuse to run his hands over the cook's gorgeous body without much explanation.

As he approached his first table, Duo felt flustered and confused, but all together happy. He had a great best friend with benefits, a new job, and great friends. He walked up to his table with a genuine smile and happily introduced himself before he realized who was sitting there, with a woman.

"Rick," Duo breathed out, his smile slowly disintegrating off his face. "How are you?"

The man sitting in the booth stared up at him with just as much horror, and it took him a bit longer to answer than it had for Duo to begin the awkward conversation. "I'm good," he forced out. The woman he was with looked between the two skeptically.

"An old friend?" She asked softly, smiling up at Duo. It took all his will power not to grab something off a nearby table and throw it at her. So this was the woman he'd been cheated on with. He was happy to know that she at least had big tits, as that was something his ex had seemed to be overly stimulated by. In fact, Duo shuddered at the memory of being asked to put on a lacy bra for him one evening. At the time he'd simply reminded himself that he was bi- sexual, and chalked it up to kinkiness.

"Yeah," the dark haired man stuttered out.

Duo chuckled nervously and took his black book out. "Well," he laughed. "Anyway, can I uh, get you something to drink?"

After taking their drink order, Duo stalked into the kitchen. He started out wearing a bright smile, but as each step took him closer to the kitchen, it melted into a frown, then a grimace, then a scowl.

Heero watched for Duo while he was gone, and upon his return, was about to call out to him, only to be interrupted by the frustrated howl that erupted from the server. The rest of the kitchen turned to him wearing shocked faces.

"God, _why _me!?" Duo exclaimed, pulling at his bangs, as he leaned against the posse.

"What's wrong?" Hilde asked quickly, coming to stand next to him, Quatre hot on her heels wearing a shocked expression.

"Rick's at my table," Duo shot out, pushing past her and walking to the soda tank. "And he and his _girlfriend_ need their drinks."

Heero's ears perked up at the mention of Rick. He paused momentarily as he strained his hearing to catch everything possible.

"Rick his ex?" Wufei asked wide eyed, and Heero shushed him quickly.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Hilde asked nastily.

"Ruining my life," Duo muttered in response, cutting a lemon with much more force than necessary.

"Who's Rick?" Quatre asked, grabbing two straws and putting them in the drinks while Duo made a breadboard.

"His ex," Hilde replied. "Cheated on him."

"And apparently with a dumb blonde," Duo finished, taking the breadboard and drinks and headed back out into the dining room.

Part of him wanted to just give the table to another server, but another wanted to prove that he was over Rick enough to serve him and his new girl. Regardless of whether or not he was, he forced a smile and took their orders, made small talk, and learned some interesting facts about Rick's girlfriend.

"Heero," Duo called under the window, a grim look on his face.

Heero bent down to look at him. "What?"

"We're going dancing tonight."

"Dancing?" Trowa asked.

"Yes," he responded. "Rick still bar-tends at that club, and apparently his lady friend is a go-go dancer there. So we're going dancing."

Heero smirked a bit. "I'm fairly certain that Wufei and I were throwing a party tonight."

"Well, now you're going dancing."

Laughing a bit, Heero saluted to the server. "Whatever you say."

Wufei grumbled. "I hate dancing."

"I hate Rick but I'm still going," Heero responded with a sigh.

"Yeah, but you'd do anything for Duo so I'm not really sure that counts," Trowa quipped.

Heero nodded to himself as he scrapped down a section of the grill and slapped a ribeye onto it. He cringed, such a fatty steak. Though he tried to focus totally on his work, Heero's mind kept drifting back to Duo. Every now and then he'd look back towards the server line and search for Duo. Most of the time he'd see him standing against the metal counter, his arms crossed over his chest looking contemplative.

"Wufei," he called, setting down his spatula. "Watch the grill for a second. I'm going to get my ipod."

Trowa chuckled to himself. "You really are pathetic, Heero."

"Shut up," he responded, shoving past him and on his way to the back line. Whenever morale in the restaurant was low, Sally had noticed that the servers made more mistakes, and more customers were unhappy with their food. In an attempt to stop this, she had installed a stereo that was connected to the speakers in the kitchen that the cooks and servers could plug their music into. Shockingly enough, whenever the cooks played music, almost the whole kitchen sang along and spirits would rise.

Heero rummaged through his coat pocket on the back line and finally grasped his ipod. He smiled to himself as he walked back to the grill, searching through his playlists until he found the one he was looking for. Work Trauma. It consisted of all the songs that everyone knew, and the ones all the servers liked to sing to, especially Duo. And Heero knew just which song he'd start with.

"What did you pick?" Trowa asked as Heero stood on the stool to plug in his ipod to the stereo.

"I'm trying to get a smile out of Duo," he answered.

Wufei rolled his eyes as he pushed a table's food into the expo window. "Great."

_Right now, he's probably slow dancing with a beach blonde tramp and she's probably getting frisky._

Trowa and Wufei both cracked up laughing, almost dropping a chicken breast and plate on the floor. This must have been serious, as Heero only put on country when things seemed really horrible in the kitchen.

Heero bent down next to Wufei and smiled as he saw Duo chuckling as he refilled some drinks.

'Mission accomplished,' he thought to himself as the staff began singing along with the song, and Duo began humming. By the time he was making a bread board, he was singing loudly to the chorus.

"Cause I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped up four wheel drive! Carved my name into his leather seat!"

Heero chuckled as Duo's horrible pitch became quieter as he exited the kitchen.

Duo hummed to himself as he approached his table. "There you are, Rick," he said happily, setting down the bread board.

"Thanks Duo," he replied hesitantly. "So we'll be seeing you tonight right?"

Duo nodded. "Absolutely." He smiled, but was really envisioning slashing the tires of his former boyfriend's beloved SUV. "Your food should be up in a second."

Duo smirked as he walked back into the kitchen. Rick hadn't met Heero, and as far as Duo was concerned, Heero was much more attractive than the bartender and his little blonde bimbo put together. He had no doubt that Heero would play along to make Rick jealous, and maybe even beat on him a little if necessary. Well, the cook probably wouldn't go that far, but Duo could hope.

When Duo entered the kitchen, the serving staff was in the middle of a chorus of Sweet Caroline, and somehow, he found himself unable to keep the smile off his face. He immediately walked to the expo window and searched for the person responsible for the sudden good mood.

"Heero," he called with a smile.

The cook turned from the grill and smirked when he saw Duo's smiling face in the window. "Yes?"

"Nice tunes," he said. Wufei rolled his eyes and made gagging sounds until Heero smacked him in the ass with the spatula.

"Thanks," Heero answered and motioned to the grill. "Your table 11's food is almost up."

Duo's expression soured slightly. "That's Rick and his girlfriend."

Heero's face went blank. "It is?"

Duo nodded and Heero cursed inside his head. He always made Duo's food to the best of his ability, and this table was no exception. Quickly calculating time and heating temperatures he realized that he'd be unable to screw up the order and make it look like an accident. His face turned into a scowl as he handed off the steaks to Wufei. They looked and felt like a perfect medium. Heero cursed to himself.

"Jeez, Heero," Duo called under the window, wearing a grim expression. "You could have at least singed the edge of their steaks or something."

Heero stared at Duo for a moment before sticking his hand under the window. "You are absolutely right, give it back to me."

Duo raised an eyebrow as he stuck some cheese in the bake potato. Quatre was grabbing chives and bacon as he scooped a butterball and a dollop of sour cream into the potato. "It's already out here."

"I will fix it," Heero said firmly.

"Dirt before grass, Quatre!" Duo scolded before rolling his eyes. "Don't worry about it, Heero."

As he picked up the two plates on the tray and stalked out of the kitchen, Quatre turned a confused glance to Hilde.

"What?"

"Dirt before grass," she said, pointing to the garnish bar. "Bacon before chives."

"Oh," he said dimly, turning to stare at the door Duo had just walked out of. "Is he going to be alright?"

Hilde nodded, crossing her arms. "He'll be fine. If anything he'll just be a little moody for a few days."

As she was finishing showing Quatre how they would be doing their side work, Duo stalked back into the kitchen, chuckling a bit as he did so.

"I've got a cook up," he called, setting the plate down on the side window, on top of the slow roaster.

The whole kitchen froze, but all eyes turned to Heero. The grill cook had his back turned to the kitchen, but everyone could see the fury that was bubbling up in him. Heero Yuy, had not had a cook up in over six months, and the whole staff pitied the poor bastard who sent back his food.

"What?" He asked softly, turning around to face Duo.

"He says it's medium rare," was all Duo said, with a shrug of his shoulders, and an exhausted look on his face.

Heero was not the kind of man to not admit when he was wrong. He was more frustrated that he'd messed up a steak than at the person who sent it back. Reaching up with his tongs, he grabbed the steak that was cut through the middle, only glancing at it for a second on his way to throw it back onto the grill. He paused, a confused look gracing his face as he pulled back the second side of the steak and stared at the middle.

"This steak is medium," he said sharply, turning back to Duo, who wore an agitated expression.

"I know that," he responded. The serving staff moved slowly to the exits of the kitchen. Hilde tried grabbing Quatre and making a run for it but the blonde was morbidly curious as to what would happen.

"There is nothing I can do," Heero said. "This steak is medium. Does he want it medium well?"

"He says he wants it medium."

Heero growled for a moment before slapping the steak down on his cutting board and sliced through the meat totally, expecting to find some rare piece that would account for this cook up, but there wasn't. The steak was medium throughout.

Wufei stepped back as Heero began plating the steak, with a replacement potato and shoved past him to come onto the server line. "What table," he asked sharply.

"Oh no," Hilde muttered to herself. Quatre's eyes dazzled with amusement.

"11," Duo said shortly, walking out of the kitchen as Heero followed.

"Lets go," Hilde muttered, grabbing Quatre's arm to follow them out of the kitchen. "We aren't going to want to miss this."

The two staked out near the back posse, walking briskly to beat Heero and Duo to the table.

Heero and Duo did not speak on their way to the table. Nothing really needed to be said though, they were both on the same page. It was one thing to go to a restaurant and complain if the food was bad, but it was another to go to a restaurant, sit with your ex, and complain when everything was perfect. A very different thing.

"This steak is medium," Heero said, setting the plate down in front of Duo's shocked ex. "There is nothing I can do for you."

"It's a tad undercooked don't you think?" He said hesitantly, his eyes moving back and forth from Duo to Heero. Duo stood next to the table with his arms crossed and said nothing.

Grabbing a fork off the table, Heero stabbed the steak and opened it to show Rick. "This steak has a brown to pink edge with a hot red center. This is a perfect medium steak for this restaurant. If you wanted it medium well, you should have asked for it that way."

And with that, Heero set the fork down and stalked away from the table.

He didn't look back to see if Duo was following him. There was too much going on in his head to deal with it. Heero had never actually seen Duo's ex. He had only heard stories about the guy, and now that he'd actually seen him, he felt a tad insecure. While he had intended to chew the guy out at the table, not only for the steak, but for also cheating on his best friend and part time boyfriend, he found himself a little shocked when he saw the man. He was surprisingly good looking, and Heero was covered in grease and smelled like beef.

"Heero, my office, now," Sally growled out, gesturing towards the back line before turning swiftly on her heels and stalking to her office.

Heero growled and glanced to Trowa and Wufei, both of whom gestured to a very smug looking Zechs as he leaned against the posse with his arms folded across his chest.

Rolling his eyes, Heero followed Sally's path into the office.

When Duo walked back into the kitchen with Hilde and Quatre hot on his heels, he saw Heero walking to the back line.

"I don't even _like_ Heero and I'm telling you, that was the most kick ass thing I've ever seen!" Hilde exclaimed, laughing as she began telling the rest of the serving staff about the events that went down only moments prior on the floor.

"Where's Heero going?" Duo asked Zechs, the closest person around.

"To get fired probably," he said with a smirk, stalking past a befuddled looking Duo.

Duo quickly turned to the cooks. "What happened?" He asked, the concern he felt for Heero evident in his voice.

Trowa glared at Zechs as he walked out of the kitchen. "Zechs tattled on him."

Sally was usually a very liberal manager, only intervening when a customer was very disgruntled, which was very rare, but when she did, she was not one to pull her punches, and wouldn't hesitate to fire someone who was causing a problem.

"Is he in trouble?" Duo asked. Wufei snorted as he pushed a table's worth of food into the window.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Duo shot out.

"What?" Wufei asked, looking up at the concerned server.

"That noise. What is that supposed to mean?"

"Only that you got Heero fired."

Duo paled. "Fired?" He squeaked out.

A door slammed so loud on the back line that Duo was shaken from his thoughts and turned towards the noise. Heero was soon seen stalking out into the kitchen carrying his coat and looking murderous.

"Heero!" Sally called, chasing after him. "I know the situation is difficult for you," she began, before getting cut off by the angry cook.

"No," he said. "You actually have no idea. I just found out about this and you knew for almost two weeks?"

"He asked me not to tell anyone," Sally said, lowering her voice so that the other servers would have to strain their ears to eavesdrop on their conversation. "You know I'm sorry. Will I see you at work tomorrow?" She asked hopefully.

Heero stared at her momentarily, before letting out a frustrated sigh. "Yeah," he said. "I'll be here."

Reaching up Sally patted her long time employee on the shoulder and gave him a sad smile. "Everything will work out," she insisted. "But next time, please don't harass my customers."

"It was a perfect medium," Heero said firmly. "He was only trying to mess with Duo."

Sally nodded. "I know, I know. Don't worry about it. Just go home and I'll have one of the preppers move to make up and put Wufei on grill."

"Alright," Heero said, throwing one last glare in Zechs' direction before heading toward the kitchen exit.

Duo stared at the display with horrified eyes, glancing towards Wufei who was gesturing that Heero was getting fired by running his hand across his throat and making gargling choking noises.

As Heero began to leave the kitchen Duo ran over and grabbed his arm. "Did you get fired?" He choked out, his brows drawn up with concern.

When Heero stared at Duo, his anger was instantly diminished. Smirking a bit, Heero brushed a stray piece of hair behind Duo's ear and shook his head. "No, but I am going home early."

Duo didn't look convinced.

"Don't worry about it, Duo," Heero said with a small smile. "Works out better this way. I've got more time to get ready for dancing tonight."

Duo let out a shocked laugh. "We're still going?"

Heero nodded, leaning in to whisper in Duo's ear "Of course we are. I'm going to make him regret ever cheating on you." Leaning back he stared into Duo's shocked face. "Come over to the house when you're done, okay?" And with that Heero gave Duo one last smirk before turning around and walking out.

---------------

"Sally can you come check us out?" Duo asked, leaning against the door frame of the office. He had to close with a rather shabby server and it had taken much longer than usual, and Duo was rather antsy to get home. Well, to Heero's home that is.

"Yeah, just one second," Sally responded, leaning over Zechs as he finished doing employee bags. "You still need to find these two comps," she mumbled, pointing to the discrepancy on one of the readings.

"Alright, Duo," Sally said, pushing past him. Duo glared at Zechs before turning.

"Don't look at me like that," Zechs mumbled, shuffle through reprods.

"I'm not sure I know how else to look at you, traitor," Duo growled, turning around only to have his arm grabbed by the taller server.

"What's with you two, Duo," Zechs muttered. "Does he even know? About us?"

Duo ripped his arm away. "There is no _us. _There never was. You caught me on one bad day, and if you ever mutter a breath about it to anyone, you're going to be very, very sorry."

Slamming the door behind him, Duo took a deep breath as he leaned against the wall. Zechs hadn't mentioned their drunken night in months, but as things with Heero began developing into something, the taller server had been dropping hints alluding to their secret hook up.

The whole thing started when Duo began having a crush on the exotic looking cook. He was somewhat grappling with his new feelings for his best friend, and somehow found himself rustling around with Zechs.

"And it's a mistake that I'll never live down," he mumbled as he walked back to the main floor of the kitchen. His other closer was doing his bag as Sally was looking around the kitchen with a critical eye.

"You two look good back here," she said finally, taking their rag and throwing it into the dirty linen bag. "You can take off."

"Thanks, Sally," Duo smiled weakly, moving to collect his things.

"You know, Duo," Sally began. "You'll always have a job here as long as you want it."

"Thank you," Duo said genuinely. "I just think it's time to move on."

"There's going to be a lot of sad people to see you go," she mumbled, setting her hand on his shoulder.

"Well," Duo said cheekily. "It's not like I won't see you all anymore."

"Be sure of that," she replied happily. "Or I'll have a very distraught cook on my hands," she added, winking before walking past him back to the office.

Duo stood there, stunned for a moment, before a small smile graced his face. Chuckling a bit he walked out of the kitchen, his bag slung over his shoulder.

Wufei was sitting at the bar grumbling to himself as Duo walked past.

"Inventory?" Duo asked innocently, knowing that Wufei had gotten stuck doing grill and make up's side work.

"You know that's what I'm doing," he growled, glaring at the server as he walked smugly past him.

"Are you coming dancing with us?" Duo asked innocently, resting his bag on one of the bar stools as he searched for his keys.

Wufei nodded. "If I ever get out of here I will. Smack Heero when you see him and tell him it's from me."

Duo laughed, pulling his keys out of pocket and picking up his bag. "Will do," he said, waving over his shoulder. "See you there Wu."

"Wu_fei!_" Came the angry reply, causing Duo's grin to grow a fraction bigger.

As Duo threw his bag into the back of his car he couldn't help but wonder what Heero had been up to since he'd left. The dinner rush went pretty roughly without him on the grill. Make up was sloppy, and there had been multiple recooks and cook ups that Wufei greeted with some very colorful language.

It had been a long night.

By the time Duo made it to Heero's house, he wondered if he even felt up to going dancing anymore. He sighed as he lugged his bag over his shoulder and knocked on Heero's door.

When the cook answered the door, wearing dark jeans and slim fitting white button up, the urge to dance and make his ex extremely jealous rose up. "You look nice," Duo smiled, walking past Heero and into the foyer.

"Well, I had time to scrap the grease off me," Heero replied, taking Duo's bag from him and leading his friend down the hall to his room. "You're welcome to do the same if you feel like you've gotten too gross from Aussie Times."

Duo smiled and thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. While he was probably in need of a shower, when he factored in the time it would take to dry his hair he decided against it. "Nah, I'll just wash up a bit when I change."

"Sounds good," Heero said. "Throw your stuff in the washer when you're done."

"The washer? I can probably get one more wear out of them," Duo said, reaching down to unbutton his pants.

Heero shook his head. "I could smell those pants the second you walked past me. Wash them."

An unfortunate fact about working at Aussie Times was the tendency for clothing to smell like a strange kind of vomit. Duo's pants were so engrained with the smell that after one wear Heero found them so revolting that he demanded they be washed.

"You really should just buy a new pair of work pants," Heero grumbled, picking up the pants with the tips of his fingers and holding them as far away from his body as possible.

Duo pulled his jeans up and laughed. "I'm not buying new pants to wear for two weeks."

Heero's chest tightened as Duo uttered those words. Even though he'd found out Duo was leaving recently, he had been more than happy to pretend that he had no knowledge of Duo's "real job." As the server pulled off his wife beater undershirt, and rummaged through his bag for a t- shirt, Heero stared at him with a dim expression.

Duo's muscles flexed under taut skin as he pulled his black t- shirt over his head. He was completely oblivious to the cook's sad glances, and even more to the reason for his depression. Heero had always assumed that he would eventually be with Duo officially, but had never felt rushed because he had assumed that they'd always work together. There was no reason for change, so there was no reason to push the issue. Until now.

Heero knew that Duo had some intimacy issues. Not so much on the physical end, but with commitment. Duo was not fond of labeling relationships, and Heero didn't particularly mind, because in his own way, Duo showed he cared, and showed that he would eventually take steps to label what he had with Heero.

"Yeah," Heero muttered, laughing softly. "I guess that wouldn't really be too smart. It's not like you'll need a new pair of slacks to do graphic design."

"Nope," Duo laughed, patting Heero on the shoulder. "I plan to work in my underwear," he continued. "When I'm not naked," he added, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

Heero chuckled, and shook his head. "You would."

"You bet I would. Are we waiting for Wufei?"

Heero shook his head. "No, and regardless he'd probably want to drive separate. How drunk are you planning on getting tonight?"

Duo smiled and let out a happy sigh as he plopped down next to Heero on the bed. "Well, my ex came in with his lovely girlfriend, and I'm going to the club where he bartends so he thinks that I'm okay with all this, when really, I'm... well...I'm planning on getting pretty stupid tonight."

"Maybe we should take a cab then," Heero suggested.

Duo let out a laugh and nodded, jumping off the bed and extending his hand to Heero. "I like where your head is at."

One phone call and cab ride later, Duo found himself clutching to Heero's arm and looking around the smokey club nervously.

Duo had to give it to Rick, he definitely worked in one of the most happening dance clubs in town, but for some reason that actually infuriated Duo. It was as though his ex had sucked all the fun out of getting drunk and dancing your ass off.

Heero turned his head to glance at Duo as they pushed their way through the crowd to the bar. Duo was clutching to his arm so tightly that he was certain that there was some degree of blood loss, and fully expected his arm to go numb in a few moments. While he wasn't all too disappointed in the fact that Duo was clinging to him, he was rather upset as to the reasoning. Heero hated seeing his best friend so nervous.

Heero yanked Duo close as they made their way to the bar, pulling him close to his side and throwing an arm around his shoulders. "You're going to cut off my circulation."

Duo flushed for a moment and chuckled before leaning up to speak into Heero's ear. "Sorry, just nervous I guess."

"You have no reason to be."

As the two finally pushed their way to the bar, they saw Rick and another bartender shaking various martinis and opening beer bottles. "Yo, Rick!" Duo called, leaning over the bar and waving his ex over.

Rick quickly finished shaking a martini and strained it into a glass, handing it off to a customer before heading over to Duo wearing a large smile. "You came!"

"I did," Duo responded, quickly grabbing Heero's arm and yanking him into view. "And I brought my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" Rick asked, his eyes going wide.

Heero didn't miss a beat and quickly threw his arm over Duo's shoulder possessively. "I believe we've met."

Rick quickly scanned Heero, and recognition stood in. "You're the cook from today!"

Heero nodded. "Sure am. Can I get a Bud Light, please."

"I'll take a jack and coke," Duo quickly added, with a devilish smile at the look of horror on his ex's face.

"Yeah, one second," he muttered, giving Heero one more nervous glance before going to get the drinks.

"Boyfriend?" Heero whispered into Duo's ear, his smile not visible to the server, but there nonetheless.

"I panicked, okay?" Duo grumbled, rubbing a hand over his face.

Heero's face immediately fell. Granted, he knew that Duo was probably just trying to get a raise out of his ex, but he couldn't help but hope.

"Listen, Duo," Heero began, only to be cut off as Rick reappeared in front of them.

"Here, guys," Rick said, placing the drinks down on the bar in front of the two. "It's..."

Heero held up his hand, silencing the bartender as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills. Quickly folding them over, he extended the bills to Rick. "Keep the change."

Rick quickly counted the bills, and was about to dispute the rather large tip that Heero had just left him, but the cook already had Duo in tow to a table near the dance floor.

Duo chuckled as he glanced back at the somewhat mortified look on Rick's face. "One thing that I will always love about you, man," he began, setting his drink down on the table as he sat on the tall stool next to it. "You know how to leave a tip. And how to make a guy jealous," he quickly added. "That's also an indispensable talent."

Heero chuckled, taking a swig of his beer. "I'm not sure tipping is considered a talent."

"Maybe not," Duo responded. "But bad tipping is a deal breaker."

"Hello there," Trowa greeted as he draped an arm over Heero. Duo scowled at the other cook for interrupting there conversation, but brightened up quickly as Quatre appeared behind Trowa, waving nervously to him.

"Quatre!" Duo exclaimed. "You came out with us?"

"With me," Trowa corrected, raising his eyebrows and causing both Heero and Duo to roll their eyes.

"It's nice to see you," Duo said. "How was training today."

Quatre pulled out the seat next to him and sat down. "Much less informative. At least in regards to serving, but I did learn a lot of new swear words from Wufei."

Heero laughed at that, sputtering on his beer. "I forgot about that. So Wufei got saddled with my side work huh?"

Duo nodded, a smirk tugging at his lips as he remembered the scowl that had permanently marked Wufei's face after Heero's departure.

"I'm sure he loved that."

"Oh, he loved it."

The group made small talk, others came and chatted, but eventually Heero and Duo found themselves where they'd started. Alone. They'd downed several more drinks and just as Duo was beginning to feel a little more than buzzed, they'd noticed a very interesting development on the dance floor. Around the blasting techno-beats there was a very inebriated Quatre grinding on a very happy looking saute cook.

"What a dog," Duo mumbled to himself.

Heero laughed as Quatre stumbled on the dance floor and Trowa quickly pulled him up into a fireman's carry, causing the smaller man to laugh hysterically. "He is, isn't he?"

"He shouldn't take advantage like that."

Heero shrugged. "I don't think Quatre's complaining too much."

"Maybe not," Duo replied, downing the last of his jack and coke. "Feel like dancing?"

"Can you dance at this point?" Heero asked, mentally sizing up Duo's drunkenness and his ability to walk, let alone dance.

"Lets find out," Duo smiled, standing up, and staggering a bit as he did so. Heero quickly stood as well, grasping onto Duo's arm to keep him from falling. The server had a well known tendency to drink a lot sitting down and not recognize the full effect of his buzz until he was trying to walk somewhere. Heero had a much higher alcohol tolerance, and usually kept his buzz pretty low to watch over his best friend.

"Alright, tiny dancer," Heero chuckled out, wrapping an arm around Duo's waist to keep him stable as he led them both to the dance floor.

Duo wrapped his arms around Heero's neck, and laid his head on his chest, letting out a deep contented sigh. "This night didn't turn out so bad," he mumbled into Heero's chest as the cook tried to keep Duo from stepping on his toes or stumbling.

"No, it didn't," Heero replied, lifting Duo a bit to place both his feet on top of his. "Here."

Duo laughed a bit, and clutched tighter to Heero's neck. Heero placed his hand on the back of Duo's neck, holding his head to his chest. It was strange how right it felt, even as they danced rather slow to the fast paced song.

"I'll miss this," Heero whispered into Duo's ear, so soft that Duo leaned back a bit to look at him with a questioning glance.

"What did you say," Duo trailed off and look at something past the two of them. Heero pushed Duo back a bit and looked over his shoulder. Rick was at the bar, making out rather heavily with a skinny blonde woman. He currently had his hand over her breast, and was hiking up her skirt.

"Home please," Duo mumbled softly, and Heero let out a sigh in response.

"Alright," he answered, pulling Duo close. "Lets go."


	3. Chapter 3

**Two Weeks**

**By: SukiNora**

**Disclaimer: Don't own em. **

**Summary: The guys work at Aussie Times, and Australian themed restaurant. Heero, Wufei, and Trowa are cooks, and Duo is the top server who is selected to train the newest Aussie-server Quatre. Heero secretly likes Duo, who has just put in his two weeks.**

**A.N. Here's the third chapter. I'm working on a very long one shot, the last chapter of the stand still. There's just so many things to do! This chapter actually probably isn't going to be in the restaurant too much. Actual plot emerges!**

**Chapter Three**

**---------**

"I just don't know where he gets off," Duo slurred, hanging heavily on Heero's shoulder as the cook tried leading him through his front door.

"Me neither," Heero said half heartedly. He was having a difficult time getting the two into the house. Duo was clinging to him heavily, unable to walk straight at this point, and Heero's vision had begun to get a little shifty by the time they left the club. Regardless, even tipsy Heero knew that you always agreed with drunk Duo, no matter what he was talking about.

"I mean, he was practically having sex with her right there!" Duo exclaimed. He threw his arm up in exasperation, nearly smacking Heero in the face. In an attempt to avoid the flying arm Heero lost his grip on the server who went tumbling to the ground.

"Shit," Heero mumbled to himself, leaning against the wall as he tried to lower himself to the floor next to Duo.

"And he ruined our dance!" Duo continued, unfazed by his trip to the floor despite the small cut he'd acquired on the way down. A little stream of blood trailed from his eyebrow to his cheek.

"Yes he did," Heero agreed, finally sitting on the floor, his back against the wall and his elbows resting on his knees.

"It's preposterous!" Duo crawled onto his knees and swatted Heero's hands. He'd had them folded together between his knees, but as he moved them apart, Duo quickly took their place, half laying half crawling in between his legs. He placed his ear to Heero's chest and listened to his heart beat.

Heero froze, barely breathing as Duo crawled onto him. He tried to keep his heart beat under control, but as the server got closer and closer he felt an uncomfortable burn stain his cheeks, followed by an uncomfortable swelling in his pants.

"We should go to sleep," Heero mumbled, putting his arm up a bit as he tried to push Duo off of him. He didn't want spiteful sex. The two had not yet actually had relations of such a physical nature, only engaging in mostly heavy petting, and Heero hadn't envisioned taking their relationship to the next level while intoxicated, or out of spite towards an ex boyfriend. He sighed, too much of their relationship already occurred while they were drunk. No, they would wait.

"Dun feel like sleepin'," Duo mumbled out, leaning more heavily against Heero as he smiled into his neck. He gave the soft skin beneath his lips a light nip as he ground his hips against the cook.

Heero let out a shaky breath as he leaned into Duo's lips. "It'd be best," he whispered out in shaky breath.

Duo chuckled. "When do we ever do what's best for us?"

Heero had to agree with that point. Drinking every night definitely wasn't the best decision, but it was certainly fun. As Duo moved from kissing the cook's neck to his cheeks, and finally to his lips, Heero felt his resolve slipping. Roughly grabbing the back of Duo's neck and buried his hand in the servers hair and pulled him against him tightly.

Duo moaned into Heero's mouth, wrapping his arms around the larger man's neck. When the two finally broke for air, Duo rested his head against Heero's forehead and chuckled softly. "You know, I always have the best ideas."

Heero chuckled in return, wrapping his arms around Duo's waist. "Maybe," he mumbled, his eyes closing of their own accord. The two laid in the hallway, half sitting against the wall, and kissed lazily until they eventually drifted to sleep.

Duo's eyes snapped open as something hard connected with the back of his head. Letting out a gasp of pain, he instinctively grabbed the aching spot, groaning as he realized that his head was now pounding for two reasons. "Oh god," he mumbled, his head pounding as his stomach churned.

"Little too much to drink?" Wufei asked snidely, stepping over the server, still laying on the floor.

"That obvious?" Duo asked, rolling onto his side so he could sit up against the wall. "What time is it?"

"Time for you to leave?" Wufei half asked half suggested, looking over the mail on their hallway table. "You don't live here you know."

"I'm Heero's best friend," Duo retorted, as though that were reason enough for him to be there twenty four hours of the day.

"Heero is not here. When he's here you can be here, but if you're here when he's not, you either help pay the mortgage, or you go home."

Duo scoffed, using the wall as leverage as he attempted to stand. "You don't have to pretend you hate me, Wu," he grumbled, giving his best smirk. "I know you've got a soft spot for me."

Wufei rolled his eyes. "Oh yes," he replied sarcastically. "You see right through me."

"Where is Heero anyway?" Duo asked, looking around, his eyes finally falling on the hallway clock. It was almost one in the afternoon.

"Some of us have to do real work for a paycheck," Wufei said snidely, turning to face Duo. "If you recall he doesn't thrive off the generosity of others."

"Hilarious," Duo replied. "I can't help that I make twice your salary for half the work," he growled. He heard Wufei scoff as he walked past him towards the bathroom that was just down the hallway. While he had originally been put off by the cook, he quickly learned that Wufei was a dog that didn't have much of a bite for how much he barked. After time Duo has just begun to envision him as one of those yappy dogs that bark like crazy when they see someone, but then automatically roll onto their back to get a belly scratch if someone actually gets close to them. Duo was slowly inching closer, and was determined to pet Wu-Wu's belly.

As Duo walked down the hallway he glimpsed into Heero's room. He smirked, leaning in the doorway. The room was, as usual, completely void of any clutter or mess. Letting out an involuntary chuckle Duo shook his head, and continued to the bathroom.

Duo had been in this situation many times before. He'd go into the bathroom, use Heero's bathing supplies to freshen up, grab his extra work clothes that he left at the house and head back to Aussie Times. It was an arduous cycle, and Duo smiled at the thought that in less than two weeks he'd be breaking out of that mold.

"Finally," he mumbled to himself. Duo closed his hand on the door knob to the bathroom, not realizing until he was twisting the knob and opening the door, that it was very unusual for Heero or Wufei to keep the bathroom door closed.

"Oh," Duo said, his eyes growing wide as he came face to face with Quatre, who had made a move to lock the door but was too late. "I'm sorry, man," Duo said quickly, turning to leave. "I didn't know you were here."

"It's alright," Quatre said quickly, grabbing Duo's arm before he had a chance to leave. "I was just," he hesitated. "Collecting myself."

"Oh." Duo looked the new server up and down. He wore his clothes from the night previous, but they were crumpled and looked like they'd been balled up and thrown on the floor. "_Oh_," Duo said, and his eyes grew even larger as Quatre averted his eyes and blushed a fierce red.

"I can't believe this is happening," Quatre groaned, sitting down on the toilet and covering his face in his hands. "I've only worked here for two days."

"Yeah," Duo said, the shock still apparent in his voice. "I had no idea Trowa was that smooth," he trailed off, scratching the back of his head. Quatre whimpered in response.

"How am I ever going to show my face there again," he sulked.

Duo snorted, kneeling down to sit in front of the new server. Duo felt as though he was looking at himself, only years ago when he was a new server. He would have smiled if he hadn't remembered exactly what it felt like to feel like you'd be branded the restaurant slut. "You clearly don't have_ that_ much experience in the restaurant industry."

That statement was enough to get Quatre to look up from his hands. "What do you mean by that?"

Duo smiled. "Let me put it to you this way," he began, patting Quatre lightly on the knee. "I'd say probably half the people who work at Aussie Times have slept together."

Quatre felt his eyes grow of their own accord. "So, then," he stuttered. "Trowa has," he trailed off, not sure that he actually wanted to finish that statement. He remembered the hand shaking game in high school. You shake someone's hand, who shakes someone's hand, and pretty soon you've shook all the hands in the room bi-proxy. "Oh God," Quatre said, horrified. "I've fucked all of Aussie Times on my second day."

Duo shrugged his shoulders, chuckling a bit. "Don't worry," he said. "The cooks are way less," he searched for the right word and looked positively glowing once he'd found it. "Promiscuous. I've only known about two of Trowa's hook ups, and that's a far cry from some of the people who work there."

Feeling slightly more at ease, Quatre sat up a bit and stared at Duo. Never before had he met anyone so...understanding. Though the circumstances weren't exactly the best, he was glad that Duo was the person who was having this awkward conversation with him.

"I better go," Quatre trailed off. "Thanks for talking to me though."

Duo looked appalled. "You aren't staying?"

"This isn't," Quatre began. "I mean, it's not my house. Aren't people supposed to leave after something like...this..."

Looking incredulously at Quatre, Duo pulled what was left of his braid over his shoulder. "I'm still not exactly sure what you mean."

Quatre sighed. "After a hook up," he said, the words seemed to stick in his throat and cause him actual pain.

"If Trowa didn't wake you up and kick you out when he had to go to work I'm pretty sure you're safe."

"Really?"

Duo nodded. "He's not shy about that stuff. If he didn't want you here, you wouldn't be here. He probably just wanted to let you sleep off your hangover."

For a moment Quatre thought he may have actually been paralyzed. He'd woken up alone in Trowa's room that morning, and nearly cried when he realized that not only did he just have relations with someone he barely knew, but that someone was one of the few people who seemed to go out of their way to make him feel comfortable at work.

"That's a relief," he breathed out, shaking his head a bit. "I thought this was his way of pretending it never happened."

Duo chuckled in response. "Trowa wouldn't pretend," he began. "He'd just tell you he wasn't interested as he walked you out the door for your walk of shame."

"Maxwell!" Came a loud shout from the hall. Duo turned to Quatre, smirking at the little jump he'd made.

"Does Wu know you're here?" He asked quietly, moving in a bit so Wufei wouldn't be able to hear. One good thing about cooks, is that you pretty much had to yell at them to be heard.

Quatre shook his head nervously. "I don't think so."

Duo nodded. He placed his finger to his lips to signal him to be quiet. "What Wu!?" Duo called loudly, leaning over to lock the bathroom door.

"I'm leaving, are you working today?" Wufei called through the bathroom door.

"I'm supposed to be closing but I think I'm going to try to give the shift away," Duo replied, shooting a wink towards Quatre who blushed. Duo then turned to look at the door skeptically. "Wait," he mumbled. "Why do you want to know."

Wufei's silence from the outside of the door hung heavy. He suddenly replied in a tone reminiscent of a child who'd just been caught sneaking cookies from the cookie jar. "Yuy will want to know," he said in a much lower pitch.

Duo smirked as the sounds of footsteps headed back towards the foyer. He felt very proud of himself, that was proof enough that he was beginning to grow on the cook. When the two servers heard the front door slam, Duo turned back to Quatre and smirked.

"I think I'm growing on him," Duo said proudly. "That's a big accomplishment." I will scratch your belly in time Wu, he thought to himself as he grinned. Just come a little closer.

Quatre nodded, trying to give Duo the biggest smile he could manage. "I bet."

"You look like you need to talk man. Are you working tonight?"

Quatre shook his head. "No, thank god."

"Well one second then." Duo stood up and rummaged around in his pockets for a bit before pulling out his cell phone. He quickly dialed a number, and grumbled as it went to voice mail. "Jesus, Hilde," he mumbled, fumbling with his phone as he tried to text her. It was a known fact that Hilde could only be reached by texting, and that Duo had no idea how to work texts, so you had to either call him, or text Heero, who would relay the message. "Do you still want a shift tonight," Duo said slowly, stating each work as he managed to spell it out into the text. Not even thirty seconds after the text had been sent, Duo had gotten rid of his shift.

Duo rolled his eyes. "That girl is so ridiculous." He stood up and extended his hand to Quatre, who took the offered hand and stood up. "So I assume you have no plans for today."

"No," Quatre said, following Duo out into the hall. "Well, lets hang out then. We'll talk, get some dinner and then I'll take you home. Oh wait, you and Trowa carpooled right? So your car is at Aussie Times?"

Quatre looked pale. "Yeah, I guess it is," he trailed off, obviously not wanting to go back to that place any time soon.

Duo smirked and patted Quatre on the back. "Don't worry, this is perfect. You want proof that Trowa wants you around?"

Looking at Duo somewhat skeptically Quatre nodded as the two exited the house. "I mean, I guess I just want to know what I should treat," he blushed. "Last night as."

"This is too perfect," Duo said, half to himself, half to Quatre. "How do you feel about pasta?"

---------------

"You just left him there?" Heero asked, his eyes wide as he stared at the other cook, who was non chalantly flipping a piece of chicken on the char grill.

"What was I supposed to do?" Trowa asked. "I didn't want to wake him up."

"So you like him then," Heero said carefully. Though he didn't want to offend his friend, he also wanted the true story. If Trowa just wanted a hook up, then the new server deserved to know before he got the wrong idea. He was especially curious since he could be branded an accomplice for having knowledge of this, and the fact that Duo seemed to be somewhat taken with the new server.

Trowa blushed but didn't respond. Putting a slab of butter down into his frying pan he just gave Heero a sheepish look. This best translated into 'please don't make me say it out loud, its been two days.'

Heero nodded knowingly, which best translated into 'got it,' as he turned from the saute cook and pulled down the ticket that had just been sent. They'd gotten past the dinner rush well enough today, and were now getting into the slower part of the evening. Heero breathed a sigh of relief, only two more hours till close, and four hours till he had a day off.

Heero looked at the ticket momentarily before smirking, shaking his head as he hung it in front of him. "Hilde!" He called, leaning down to look through the expo window for the server he ordinarily avoided at all costs.

She turned away from the posse and headed to the expo window where Heero had called her. Ordinarily she'd pretend not to hear him but she knew what he was going to ask. "Is Duo eating here?"

"Yeah, he's here with Quatre," Hilde said simply, letting a small smile grace her lips. If she was going to be honest, she knew that Duo would never care for her the same way he cared for Heero. However, Hilde never really liked telling the truth, and was never one to give up without a fight, so she didn't mind feuding with the cook. There were only a few times that she'd be willing to offer a cease fire, and this was one of them. Both Heero and Hilde had a similar goal: make Duo happy, and full. Hilde would provide him with excellent service, and Heero would hook him up with extra food.

"Quatre's here?" Trowa piped in, leaning down to look at Hilde. He couldn't help the eagerness that sounded in his voice, and Heero turned to him to raise an eyebrow. As Hilde nodded again Trowa turned towards Heero and looked at the table number. Sure enough, when he looked back to the saute station there was a ticket waiting for him. Kid mac, special instruction: old school.

"So Quatre likes macaroni," he mumbled to himself, smirking a bit. He vaguely wondered how Quatre had made it all the way back to the restaurant, and hoped he didn't have to pay for a cab.

Wufei chose that moment to let out a throaty laugh. "Of course he does, he's a server." He shook his head. "Fatties."

"Mmmmm," Hilde said, leaning towards Wufei. "Delicious butter." And with that she shot Heero one more smile and took off into the bar area where the two servers were sitting.

Wufei nearly crawled into the window to snap at her with his tongs. "You're the biggest fatty of them all!" He cried. "You and that Maxwell! Why don't you just live off butter?!"

Heero shot him a glare. "Watch it," he threatened, picking up a ticket to show Wufei. "Duo got broccoli for a side today. That was unjustified." Though he couldn't say that in the past he hadn't shaken his head at some of Duo's orders.

---------------

"I still don't see how this is supposed to _prove _anything," Quatre hissed over the table at Duo. The two had holed up at a corner table in the bar out of sight from most employees. Quatre felt as though everyone in the restaurant seemed to know what he'd done already, which could be true as many of them had ended up at the club, so after a brief flirtation with the hostesses, curtosey of Duo, they chose a table out of the way from most servers and wandering eyes.

The bar area was on its own side of the restaurant with ten tables and two servers during the week. This would limit Quatre's humiliation to Hilde and Zechs, both of whom definitely already knew given their first address of Quatre.

When Zechs came over and leaned on the table, winking at Quatre as he asked why his car was still in the restaurants parking lot, Duo leaned back against the wall and glared as he said 'Hilde's waiting on us.'

Not that Hilde was much better as she slapped Quatre on the back and exclaimed 'you dog!' With a brilliant smile.

"Can we please just go," Quatre whined, rubbing his head with his hands, his face burning with embarrassment.

Duo rolled his eyes. "You said you wanted proof. I'm giving you proof, just be patient."

"How is this proof!?" Quatre yelped. As his hands dropped Duo almost let out a chuckle at the sight of his new friends beat red face. Quatre leaned back and stared at the table top. "I think I'm having the beginnings of an anxiety attack."

Duo actually looked at Quatre for a moment to try to gauge his honesty. When he came to the conclusion that it was bullshit he snorted and unscrewed the lightbulb hanging above their table. "There," he said simply. "Now no one can see you."

"Duo..."

"Out of sight, out of mind Quatre."

"Please..."

"You're not here, so I can't hear you."

"Come on..."

"Oh my goodness, where'd Quatre go?"

"What the hell are you doing?" Hilde asked, a very confused and slightly weirded out look on her face as she approached the table, her arms full of food.

Duo laughed as Quatre sunk even deeper into the both, grumbling the whole way down. "Nothing," was all he said.

"Okay then," Hilde said, rolling her eyes as she set Duo's food down in front of him. His six ounce sirloin looked amazingly large for such a cut, with a heaping pile of mashed potatoes and an even bigger pile of broccoli. Duo smiled at the plate adoringly.

"This looks wonderful!" He exclaimed, leaning over the plate to take in a large smell of its aromas. "Perfect," he breathed out.

"As though you expected anything different?" Hilde asked, a dim look on her face.

Duo smirked. "I guess not. It pays to be best friends with the cook."

Quatre and Hilde looked at his a bit incredulously for a moment. Clearly there was more going on between the two of them besides friendship, but Quatre wasn't sure he'd ever referred to Heero besides anything but his best friend, save the incident with Wufei. Even then, at the insinuation that there was something going on between the two men, Duo seemed to get defensive. He didn't deny it, but he didn't embrace it either.

Quatre was shaken from his thoughts as Hilde set a large bowl down in front of him. His eyes grew wide as he looked from the bowl to Duo, who had a huge smile on his face.

"I told you," he laughed.

Quatre looked down again into the biggest pile of macaroni and cheese he'd ever seen. It piled so high that little drips of cheese clung to the edges of the bowl and splattered on the table. Quatre slowly realized what this meant. Trowa was on saute and made this for him. Trowa wouldn't have gone through that trouble if he didn't like him at least in some way. He was overreacting. Everything would be fine.

"Thank you so much, Duo!" Quatre exclaimed leaning over the table to give his new friend a huge hug. Duo was caught off guard and almost started to choke on a piece of broccoli he'd already begun to eat.

Hilde rolled her eyes. "Men."

----------

Before Quatre and Duo left Aussie Times, they decided to say thank you to the cooks who'd given them such a delightful meal. Quatre bee lined towards Trowa at the saute station, smiling the whole way. Duo followed, laughing when he saw the energetic conversation they were having, but paused to talk to some of the servers.

Heero was on grill, though his back was turned he knew Duo was in the kitchen but waited for him patiently, a slight smile tugging on his lips as Duo told the rest of the waitstaff what a fabulous dinner he'd just had.

In that way, Heero was proud of his skills as a cook, and would always be. He knew that even if Duo got another job, he'd still want Heero to feed him, a task that the cook would willing take on.

"Hey, Heero," Duo said, smirking.

Heero turned around. He was about to say hello in return until he saw the mischeivious look on the server's face and became concerned. "What did you do," he questioned, looking around the expo top for any practical jokes. The two had engaged in a brief joke war before they tip toped into something more than friendship.

Duo gestured his head towards Trowa and Quatre, who were making eyes at each other through the metal window and making plans for the next day.

Heero chuckled. "Oh," he said.

"Dinner was great by the way," Duo said happily.

Heero smiled at his best friend through the expo window. "Just doing my best to make sure you get your vegetables."

A.N. You will get to see a joke war and hear old stories of it in later chapters. I apologize for it being this long until a new chapter. I'm working on a very long dramatic one shot and it's sucking all the life out of me. You know how when you write or see something sad and it kind of puts you in a sad mood? That's me, depressed by my own fan fic. So it's been hard to write in a happier tone for this one! But don't worry, more is to come.


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